MPs and unions break ranks to demand that Starmer resign
Labour critics warn PM he could ‘end the party’ after historic defeat in local elections
TONY DIVER, PIETER SNEPVANGERS
Labour MPs and union bosses broke ranks on Friday to demand Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation after his party’s worst local elections defeat in history.
MPs warned the Prime Minister that he could “end the Labour Party”, leaving it “slaughtered” and in a state of “total destruction” at the next general election if he did not stand down.
Critics lined up to call for a new leader after Sir Keir was blamed for Labour’s historic defeats across England, Scotland and Wales, losing councils that had never been run by another party and giving up control in Wales for the first time since devolution.
MPs said he should immediately announce an orderly timeline for his departure, allowing leadership challengers to set out their pitch this summer. They were followed by the leaders of Unison, the public services union, and TSSA, its transport equivalent, who called for the Prime Minister to quit.
On Friday evening, allies of Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, broke cover to attack Sir Keir. They said there had been a “failed political experiment” at the top of the party.
Shortly afterwards, Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said that “the threat to Labour is existential” without major changes.
Labour lost hundreds of English council seats to Reform UK and saw the collapse of stronghold councils including Tameside, Blackburn, Gateshead and Sunderland, which fell to Nigel Farage’s party after 50 years of Labour rule.
Baroness Morgan of Ely, the Welsh First Minister, lost her seat in a disastrous performance for Labour at the Senedd that paved the way for an administration led by Plaid Cymru for the first time.
Labour’s share of the vote when it was projected at a nationwide level was only 15 per cent of voters – the party’s worst performance since the measure was introduced in 1979.
Sir Keir has resisted calls to resign, insisting he would not “walk away and plunge the country into chaos”, although he has not explicitly ruled out a managed transition to another leader.
On Friday morning, he faced the first demands from some of his fiercest critics on the Labour backbenches, who were later joined by moderate MPs including Louise Haigh, his former transport secretary. Ms Haigh said Sir Keir could not lead the party into the next election unless he delivered “significant and urgent change”.
Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, Britain’s largest union and one of Labour’s biggest financial backers, warned that the party faced “oblivion” unless Sir Keir stepped down, calling for a change to “not just the leader but the entire approach”.
Sharon Graham, the boss of Unite the Union, said Sir Keir faced a choice to “change or die”, and warned that the results “could be the beginning of the end for the party itself”.
The leaders of all 11 Labour-affiliated unions met on Friday afternoon for crisis talks about how to respond to the election losses.
After the meeting, the unions demanded to meet Sir Keir to discuss the “catastrophic” results, calling for a “radical new direction” from Labour that would almost certainly amount to a swing to the Left.
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Featured image: The Telegraph
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